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Mutant Mudds Deluxe moves up launch date to November 21
Mutant Mudds Deluxe will hit Steam for PC on November 21 (that's this week!), pushed up from its previous launch date of December 5. Developer Jools Watsham says it's coming out early "because it is ready! Happy holidays!" That's a good enough reason for us. Mutant Mudds launched on the 3DS eShop in early 2012, and since then it's come to Windows and iOS, and it added the Deluxe moniker to arrive on Wii U. Mutant Mudds Deluxe is set to hit PS3 and Vita as a Cross-Buy game this holiday season.
Killzone Shadow Fall out at Gamestop now, but you can't play it yet
PS4 exclusive Killzone: Shadow Fall is available now online and in-store at Gamestop, weeks before the console itself hits shelves. A Gamestop rep confirmed to Polygon that it would begin selling Shadow Fall today, even though the PS4 launches on November 15. Sure, you can't play Shadow Fall yet, but there are plenty of things to do with just the box if you buy it this early: Instagram it with "#first" Stabilize a wobbly table for a few weeks Use as an oddly shaped, not-very-heavy paperweight Eat pizza rolls off of it And plenty more, we're sure.
Play Xbox One early at a few Microsoft Stores
Microsoft's Major Nelson is embarking upon a tour of the United States and Canada, opening new Microsoft Stores and visiting existing ones in order to show off the Xbox One to the general public. Obviously we're too scared to go outside too cool for large groups, but if you live in Massachusetts, Florida or Alberta, you'll get the opportunity to play Forza 5 and Killer Instinct about a month ahead of launch. The first two events take place on September 19 and 20 at Microsoft Stores in Burlington and Boston MA, respectively. Nearly a month later, Nelson and his entourage pop into Orlando, FL on October 23 before heading up to Edmonton, Alberta on October 27. A fifth event is also planned for Scottsdale, AZ, although that won't take place until December 6. Nelson says that more locations/dates will be added to the list in the coming weeks – complete location information can be found here.
Devil Survivor Overclocked checks the time, hits EU one week early
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked is coming to European 3DSes one week earlier than expected, on March 29. Ghostlight, the European publisher, pushed the date up on its online store where the game is available for pre-order at £35.Devil Survivor Overclocked dropped in Japan and North America in fall 2011. Pre-orders from the Ghostlight store get two posters, one featuring the box art and the other a rendition of the game's Tokyo skyline. Ghostlight notes that these are both sent in cardboard tubes. Fancy.
Wii U games pre-ordered from Amazon begin shipping
Okay so, we've got some good news and some bad news for people who pre-ordered their Wii U games from Amazon. The good news, as you've probably guessed, is that some games are already making their way to players' homes, as is made evident by ultra-cool Joystiq reader Jerry's copy of Black Ops 2, seen above. Technically, this game isn't supposed to be out until Tuesday, and that's for consoles that exist.The bad news, unfortunately, is that the actual Wii U itself remains locked away in an Amazon distribution center somewhere until November 18. So, while it's awesome that your game arrived before everyone else has the chance to buy it at retail, there's not a whole lot you can actually do with it. Smell the manual, I guess?[Thanks, Jerry!]
Resident Evil 6 out early in Australia (this is how the infection begins)
Resident Evil 6 is available in Australia for Xbox 360 and PS3, and has been since Thursday, Game Informer AU reports. The game technically has a release date of Tuesday, October 2, but hey, that's more of a guideline anyway.Back in August, copies of Resident Evil 6 were let loose in Poland, though those turned out to be stolen. The Australian sales appear to be legit (or so EB Games makes it seem), so if you're in the area call up your local retailer and see if you can get lucky.[Thanks, Blaise!]
Play Halo 4 before the rest of the world at the MLG Fall Championship
Halo 4 is entering the Major League Gaming Pro Circuit four days before its launch in the wider, unprofessional world on November 6. Halo 4 will be part of the Fall Championship running November 2 - 4 in Dallas, Texas, MLG announced today.MLG will announce details about the Halo 4 competition, including prize money, format, bracket size and schedule, in the coming weeks.
Penny Arcade's wet, edgy, shadowy game to launch early
Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, Zeboyd's pixel-happy iteration in Penny Arcade's RPG series, is now set to come out on June 25 for Steam (PC immediately, Mac eventually) and XBLIG. It was originally slated to drop July 10, but as Penny Arcade puts it, "waiting until July seems dumb."Steam purchases in the first week will also get a copy of Zeboyd's Cthulhu Saves the World, which we think is most decidedly not dumb.
Devil May Cry HD Collection may be out now at your local brick-and-mortar
The Devil May Cry HD Collection has an official launch date of April 3, but brick-and-mortar stores such as GameStop are selling it right now -- seriously, call up your local games store and ask if they have it in stock.Told you so.Physical retailers are able to sell Devil May Cry HD before the launch date because the title's street date has been removed, a GameStop representative told Joystiq. Perhaps this is Capcom's way of getting you out of the house, or maybe it's trying to bring down that newfangled digital-shopping model. Whatever the reason, just think of this as Easter come early and enjoy slaughtering all your demons a week in advance.
1080p-capable Apple TV ships a day early, just in time to AirPlay with your new iPad
Did you hop on the pre-order train for the third generation Apple TV, right after the Cook-note? Might want to check that doorstep, as a metric ton of you -- including reader Joel above -- have written in to say your new hockey-puck streaming boxes have arrived. For those keeping score, that's a day ahead of the announced March 16th ship date, meaning lucky souls can get a little downtime with that revamped interface and 1080p streaming a little early. Let us know how your liking it in the comments, and for those of you still waiting, may we humbly recommend our hands-on or comparison posts?[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Journey travels to PS Plus members one week early
Reviews for Journey are already sprinkling the vast wasteland of the web, but the full game doesn't officially launch until March 13, giving the hype plenty of time to blow away like sand in the wind. Sony is looking to fix that by launching Journey one week early for PS Plus members, at the standard $15 price point.Journey will be available next week for PS Plus members, along with a bonus dynamic theme. The bonus theme is also available to PS Normal users by pre-ordering Journey from the PlayStation Store.
Canadian gets PlayStation Vita early thanks to faith, good works
Today's lucky beggar award goes to Graham Innes in Canada, who wrote in to tell us that he found a PlayStation Vita sitting on his doorstep. It wasn't a total surprise, since he'd ordered one from Amazon, but what's weird is just how soon it arrived -- the early-bird First Edition doesn't launch until February 15th and the general release is a whole week after that. We're not sure what Graham did to deserve this, but we do know from our Joystiq buddies that he's not the only one -- Amazon.ca has apparently sent out a few of these premature parcels. If the injustice burns, console yourself with the thought that Graham and his blessed compatriots probably can't access the store to download any games.Update: Graham emailed again. He has store access. He has games. Joyousness.
Nook Tablet comes off the shelves one day early for one lucky customer
Now, we can't promise you'll have the same luck as our fortunate tipster if you wander out to your local Barnes & Noble, but it does seem that at least one location is handing over Nook Tablets a little bit early. Not to be outdone by its bitter rival, the Kindle Fire, the slate with the brick-and-mortar bookstore roots also started moving 24-hours ahead of its scheduled November 16th release -- though, in slightly less official fashion than Amazon's device. If the image of the unboxed slab above isn't enough to convince you, check out the bonus receipt pic after the break.
Firefox 6 breaks out ahead of schedule, gets official August 16th
It looks like the sly fox is ready to make its worldwide debut a few days early. In typical Mozilla fashion, a complete build of Firefox 6 is now unofficially available for your downloading pleasure, three days ahead of schedule. If you're looking for a major facelift to the desktop edition, you won't find one here -- most of the new features aren't cosmetic. Perhaps most visibly, you'll find the domain name of the page you're parked on highlighted in the address bar. On the Android side, version 6 makes much bigger promises, like a "fresh visual style in Chrome Gingerbread," enhanced image scaling, and, perhaps most importantly, it's "faster and uses less memory." We've downloaded the desktop version of the browser ourselves, and we've found the release quite snappy. If you're not afraid of a little pre-release downloading, you can catch the (desktop) fox at the source links below. And as per usual, please let us know how it's treating you.
Firefox 5 slips out ahead of schedule, gets official June 21st
Mozilla promised a faster refresh cycle for its wily web browser, following the release of Firefox 4, and it's made good on that promise. We got word this morning that the final version of Firefox 5 is now available for download on Mozilla's ftp server, just 12 weeks after the last re-up. The latest incarnation brings with it support for CSS animation and a more easily accessible do-not-track setting -- now available at the top of the privacy pane -- but won't see much in the way of GUI enhancements. Of course, if you want to play it safe, and avoid any last-minute tweaks, you can always hold off until version 5 gets official, but what's the fun in that? If you've already got your hands on the sly fox, let us know your thoughts in the comments below. [Thanks, Haseeb]
Dell XPS 15z available in Australia and Asia, fits Sandy Bridge in under an inch of thickness
The XPS 15z, true to Michael Dell's word, is now with us. Provided "now" is May the 24th in whatever part of the world you happen to live in. Laptop shoppers in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan -- a group of nations already enjoying the glories of Tuesday -- can now buy the 0.97 inches-thick 15z for prices starting at just under A$1,400. That buys you a Core i5-2410M from Intel (2.3GHz default speed, 2.9GHz with Turbo Boost), a generous 6GB of DDR3 RAM, backlit keyboard, GeForce GT 525M graphics with 2GB of dedicated memory, a 750GB hard drive, and a 64WHr battery. The screen spans 15.6 inches diagonally and offers 1920 x 1080 resolution. Stepping up to A$1,700 gets you a Core i7-2620M (2.7GHz default, 3.4GHz TB) and 8GB of RAM. Juicy specs, we must admit. Now when's midnight coming? [Thanks, John]
White iPhone 4 appears to be ready to order at Three UK (update: gone!)
Looks like somebody pulled the trigger on an order page for the mythical white iPhone 4 a little early over at Three UK. The phone that had previously been listed on the carrier's site for a long, long time (sans any ability to actually order it) has now sprouted up a page all its own with the magical option to "buy now." We managed to get all the way through to an order confirmation page, so if it's a mistake it's a very thoroughgoing one. Calling up Three's telephone ordering line and PR personnel brought us no closer to finding out the truth, but this particular order page was discovered via a tweet by a Three affiliate -- whose tweets have since gone private -- suggesting it was dug up from someone in the know. Our suspicion is that Apple's finally about ready to dish this phone up to the people and Three has been caught testing out its order page ahead of the inevitable onslaught of white iPhone orders. Hit the source link to see the premature revelation for yourself. Update: Three finally wised up to the fact nobody else was yet offering the pale phone for sale and has pulled the page. For now. Update 2: Three's official statement on the matter: "This page is not live at the moment, it was built at the same time as the iPhone black page so that we have it ready when and should the time come to launch white. For now, it's a hidden page that's inactive."
Kyocera Echo available right now for Sprint Premier customers, tests your patience
If you're a Sprint Premier customer and are planning to purchase the company's eccentric dual-screen Android smartphone, listen up. Yes, it's due to launch in just three days, but the wireless company is now offering its loyal customers a chance to order the Echo right now. If you decide to jump the gun, you'll be happy to know that Sprint is waiving upgrade fees and will ship you the device for zero bucks. So, if this offer sounds tempting -- and you qualify -- hit the source link to get a 72-hour advantage on everyone else. [Thanks, Eric]
Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs and motherboards now on sale in Malaysia, what Consumer Electronics Show?
Let us all warmly greet the Core i5-2300, the i5-2400, and the Core i7-2600, three desktop-bound members of Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge CPU brigade. You'll note that all three are fully dressed in their retail attire in an image coming from Malaysian electronics store Compuzone, which also has a full pricing and speed breakdown for these central processing units. The 3.4GHz Core i7 part costs 939RM ($301), followed by 609RM ($195) for the 3.1GHz 2400, and 585RM ($188) for the 2.8GHz 2300. It seems like Intel's up to its old tricks again, letting some stock roll out early in distant Asian locales. At least this should mean there'll be plenty to go around once the CES 2011 launch of these chips is out of the way. Hit the source for more details and to scope out pricing for the new LGA1155 motherboards. [Thanks, Melantha]
Blockbuster Express kiosks test $2.99 per night new release rentals, Redbox looks unimpressed
28 days. It's more than an unappreciated flick from the turn of the millennium, it's also driving the executives at Redbox, Netflix and a smattering of other unorthodox rental companies mad. Movie studios have been hellbent on keeping their new release DVDs and Blu-ray Discs out of instant-rent hands for 28 days after release, noting that dollar-per-night rentals could drastically reduce DVD / BD sales in the all-important launch window. Now, however, it seems that at least a couple of 'em are willing to bend. Starting this week in four major cities (Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco, for those curious) DVDs for Warner Bros.' "Inception" and 20th Century Fox's "Knight and Day" are being slipped into NCR's Blockbuster Express kiosks. The catch? It'll be $2.99 per night to rent either of them, a nearly threefold increase in the nightly rate that Redbox charges. Additional details on the trial are few and far betwixt, but it's safe to say that Redbox isn't any closer to nabbing fresh flicks sooner, and unless you're down with a 3x price hike, neither are you.
